Sacred Cow Series

“SACRED COWS”

We often think of cows as undifferentiated beasts whose sole purpose is to provide for man’s needs.  Hence we portray them as barely conscious, without individual character, and with no inner life.  Indeed, when they are in a field and unthreatened, it is difficult to imagine that cows have any consciousness at all.  But when we disturb them, their consciousness becomes evident.  Take a cow’s calf and you are faced with aggrieved motherhood.  Intrude on a bull’s territory and you are faced with his need to protect what he values.

By studying cows at peace I have felt their inner lives, their cow-consciousness, which is all their own, always present and watchful, kept private until we disturb it.  Cows and bulls that look up at us from a field usually reveal only the surface of themselves, but beneath that surface is a full range of cow emotions, ranging from curiosity and playfulness to passion and fury.  These emotions are always on the edge of expression, and in ways that are unique to each animal.  They can be apprehended by studying their watchful eyes and monumental bodies.  When they gaze at us across the divide between species, they are assessing what impact we will have on their need to be at peace with each other.

In my series, “Sacred Cows,” I portray cows and bulls as I have looked back at them across the species divide.  What I have seen are beings of individualized nobility, power and patience.  I have depicted their monumentality, strength and mass in watercolor because it defies the opaque wall between humans and cows and replicates the epiphanal moment when I have seen into them.  It allows me to evoke their solidity, while playing good-naturedly with their forms to evoke their very touching innocence.

As an artist I stand as compassionate witness to the inner lives and needs of others, whatever their species.  All beings are sacred, but there is a special virtue to cows, which I have sought to capture in “Sacred Cows.”